BRIDGEPORT -- Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas will leave the district on March 1.

The Board of Education voted 5-4 to shift the date from Feb 7, a move that will avoid a legal fight and keep the board from paying health insurance to Vallas beyond his departure date.

Freshman board member Dave Hennessey sided with Kenneth Moales, Jacqueline Kelleher, Hernan Illingworth and Republican Joe Larcheveque to move the date. Board chairwoman Sauda Baraka offered three options and favored keeping the Feb. 7 date -- with no health insurance extension -- that the board voted to accept at its first meeting in December.

The third option would have been to keep the Feb. 7 date pay Vallas' health insurance through June.

Moales said Vallas did a tremendous job for the district and should be allowed to walk away with dignity. Past superintendents have walked away with far more than four months' worth of health insurance, he said.

"I don't see why we should make any more lawyers richer," said Illingworth, in voting for the new date.

Howard Gardiner, who voted to keep the Feb. 7 date, said Vallas' original letter in November announcing he was leaving to run as lieutenant governor of Illinois was notice enough he was leaving.